Generally, a fingerprint identification system is relatively excellent in aspects of price and performance compared to other biometric identification system, and thus is widely used.
However, in a contact type fingerprint image obtaining apparatus used for an existing fingerprint identification system, a user feels unwillingness, fingerprint is distorted during contact, fingerprint image quality changes due to an environment and a user's skin condition, so that fingerprint identification performance may be reduced.
Meanwhile, to solve the limitations of a related art contact type fingerprint image obtaining apparatus, contactless fingerprint image obtaining apparatuses obtaining an image without finger contact of a user with the fingerprint image obtaining apparatus have been proposed.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,404,904 titled system for the touchless recognition of hand and finger lines discloses technology related to a fingerprint image obtaining apparatus shooting a fingerprint without contact using a charge coupled device (CCD) camera in order to obtain a user's fingerprint image.
However, since the fingerprint image obtaining apparatus by U.S. Pat. No. 6,404,904 can obtain only a fingerprint region of a partial front direction covered by the CCD camera due to the bending of a fingerprint, it cannot obtain a fingerprint image on a wide area. Also, it is difficult to expect uniform quality over an entire fingerprint region due to resolution reduction in the lateral region of the fingerprint that does not coincide with the optical axis of the camera.
Also, United States Patent Publication No. 2005/0117784 titled System for high contrast contactless representation of strips of the skin discloses an apparatus shooting the entire portion of a user's finger using seven cameras, and illuminating light from a position where the camera exists to a direction facing the finger to obtain the entire region of a fingerprint.
However, since the fingerprint image obtaining apparatus by United States Patent Publication No. 2005/0117784 uses many cameras and lights, it is not economical and increases in its size.